Safer Stockport Partnership (SSP)

Annual Review and Partnership Update 2020/21

Communities & Housing Scrutiny Committee 14 June 2021

Mark Glynn (SMBC) and Superintendent Marcus Noden (GMP)

Safer Stockport Partnership – Overview

GM Police and Crime Plan 2018-21

‘Standing Together’ – Outcomes Framework

The “Standing Together” 2019/20 Annual Report can be viewed here.

SSP Plan 2018-21

SSP Theme Leads and Priorities

Priority Themes Priority Areas for Action (updated October 2019)

Public Safety and Protection • Anti-Social Behaviour

• Crime

• Locations/Hotspots

Protecting Vulnerable People • Missing from Home or Care

• Domestic Abuse

• Child Sexual Exploitation

• Drugs and Alcohol

• Hate Crime

• Complex Safeguarding (including modern slavery, human trafficking, female

genital mutilation (FGM) and honour-based violence)

Serious and Organised Crime • Organised Crime Groups

• Young People at Risk of Involvement in Serious and Organised Crime

Transforming Justice • Adult Offending and Reoffending

• Youth Offending and Reoffending

• Victims

Public Safety and Protection – Caroline Simpson, Corporate Director - Services to Place Management &

Regeneration

Protecting Vulnerable People – Chris McLoughlin, Director of Children’s Services, SMBC

Serious and Organised Crime – Marcus Noden, Superintendent, GMP

Transforming Justice – Val Mullock, Area Manager, National Probation Service

Radicalisation and Extremism – Nuala O’Rourke, Head of Safeguarding and Learning, SMBC (interim Prevent Lead)

SSP Governance and Strategic Delivery Arrangements

Safer Stockport

Partnership Board

Safer Stockport Partnership Theme Leads Strategic Group

Radicalisation

and

Extremism

Transforming

Justice

Transforming

Justice Board

Governance

arrangements in

place across a

number of boards

PSP

Partnership

Delivery Group

Operation

Challenger

meetings(Gold / Silver /

Bronze)

Protecting

Vulnerable

People

Public Safety

and Protection

Through the Through the Through theThrough the

Serious and

Organised

Crime

Through the

Prevent

Steering

Group

Communities &

Housing Scrutiny

Committee

Community Safety Funding Streams 2020/21Fund Grant Allocation Funding Awards made (examples)

Community Safety Grant £218,973 Key areas for investment across a range of projects were:

• Domestic abuse: Independent Domestic Violence Advocates

(IDVAs); target hardening; emergency accommodation; Orange

Umbrella project.

• Reducing criminal activity and antisocial behaviour (ASB) in

Neighbourhood areas: target hardening; street improvements to

tackle environmental crime; additional no cold calling zones and

awareness raising campaigns.

Voluntary and Community

Sector Grant

(Distributed via Stockport Local

Fund process)

£100,000 Issues addressed by funded initiatives in 2020/21 included: domestic

abuse (Owls); suicide prevention (Man about a Dog); diversionary

activities for young people (PIE Radio UK); community

cohesion/inclusion projects (Culture Bridge).

Serious Violence Fund £150,000 Projects and initiatives funded in 2020/21 included: a schools-based

knife crime awareness programme; Education Officer; Post 16 Learning

Mentor; and a parent/ carers programme to raise awareness of serious

youth violence and enforce responsibilities.

Hate Crime Fund £10,000 A range of projects and initiatives were supported in 2020/21 including:

Black History Month (Education Packs); Stockport LGBT+ History

Month; Making a difference workshops on raising awareness about

recognising hate crime.

Key Headlines 2020/21 by Theme

Public Safety and Protection

Key achievements against prioritiesCovid

Covid has been and remains the most significant driver of demand over the last year, managed through strong partnership work with GMP, Council's Pandemic Response Team and Stockport Homes.

Proactive and effective pandemic response activity on business-related issues, including engaging and supporting a range of businesses and implementing a new process to assess applications for events.

Limited youth outreach interventions and recreational opportunities - this, coupled with closure of schools, has put extra pressure on parks.

Antisocial Behaviour (ASB)

Series of ASB incidents over the festive season, with multiagency work to address these.

With the relaxation of restrictions youth outreach interventions can resume, including the delivery of the Serious Violence Reduction programme within schools and the new ‘Detached Outreach’ Youth Work Team.

Crime

Residential burglary, domestic abuse and crime/incident investigation standards are Stockport’s current operational priorities.

Ongoing operations continuing into Spring/ Summer 2021 include: Op Ocean: GMP response to Covid breaches and raves; Op Sycamore: GMP response to knife crime; Op Harrington; GMP response to protests.

Public Safety and ProtectionPerformance Headlines

Average of approximately 70 Covid-related breaches reported per week in Stockport throughout 12-month period of pandemic.

Significant drop in incident demand from mid-March to June but trend reversed in summer and returned to more typical levels.

92% of Stockport residents say that they feel “very” or “fairly safe” in their local area, which is statistically significantly higher than the figure for the whole of GM (88%). (GM Policing and Community Safety Survey, “Wave 6”, December 2020). Some groups however feel safer than others.

Increase in referrals for targeted youth support as schools have returned and court backlog is cleared.

Serious and Organised CrimeKey achievements against priorities

Organised Crime Groups (OCGs)

Operation Challenger continues to disrupt Stockport OCGs, preventing the reforming of gangs and dismantling supply lines.

Over the last year this has included imprisonment of prominent OCG members; execution of intelligence led warrants; firearms seizures; and over £400K of Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) monies seized.

Young people at risk of involvement in serious and organised crime

Challenger has targeted Child Criminal Exploitation including ’County Lines’ operations, undertaking safeguarding operations with Aspire and cross border work focused on avoiding “adultification” of children and their likely ‘victim’ status.

Transforming JusticeKey achievements against priorities

National Probation Reforms

Reforms to reunify Probation Services and Community Rehabilitation Companies continued throughout 2020/21 and will create a single service covering the GM footprint with a new model commencing in June 2021.

Adult Offending and Reoffending

During the pandemic NPS and CRC adapted delivery models to ensure safe service delivery, with Accredited Programmes delivered remotely and Community Payback delivery largely paused.

New national Integrated Offender Management (IOM) strategy launched in December 2020 including a new approach to support risk management of domestic abuse service users and focus on those with a particularly high risk of re-offending.

Community Sentence Treatment Requirements are being increasingly used with a refreshed treatment offer being promoted to courts aimed at addressing addiction via requirements to engage in rehabilitation programmes.

Transforming JusticeKey achievements against priorities

Adult Offending and Reoffending (continued)

Services continue to work with the GM Violence Reduction Unit, aiming to reduce incidence and fear or serious violence, particularly knife crime, through a “public health” approach.

A new Intensive Community Order (ICO) model (aimed at young adults) has been developed and should be available for courts shortly post-unification. Work is also underway with the VRU to develop an area wide ICO approach for young adults including cases involving the resettlement of offenders following periods in custody.

GM Restorative Justice (RJ) Service (operated by Remedi, working in partnership with statutory services) will pilot a post-conviction victim led RJ process in Manchester in 2021/22 focussing on cases of domestic abuse.

Youth Offending and Reoffending

Progress on a wide range of GM led work which Stockport is actively engaged in through the GM Youth Justice Transformation Board including the development of a GM Resettlement Consortium focussing on the resettlement needs of children.

Annual Youth Justice Plan was approved by YOS Partnership Board and Full Council.

Protecting Vulnerable People

Key achievements against priorities

Drugs and Alcohol

Continued work with GM to ensure that the priorities of the GM Drugs and Alcohol Strategy are addressed in Stockport.

Victoria Intensive Project (VIP) achieved the 2020 Municipal Journal Award for public health improvement, recognition of the invaluable support being provided to individuals with complex drug and alcohol issues.

Domestic Abuse

Services have continued to be delivered to children and families affected by domestic abuse during the pandemic with regular meetings, changes to pathways and service delivery and access to emergency housing provision available.

Additional funding has been made available to tackle domestic abuse this year through the Perpetrator Programme, the Home Office Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA) fund and via the Domestic Abuse Bill.

Complex Safeguarding

The Aspire, complex safeguarding service, has continued with their offer of duty support and consultation during the pandemic. Development has continued around pieces of work including: completion of the Female Genital Mutilation strategy and action plan and a complex safeguarding week of action in October.

Hate Crime

Proactive work on hate crime has continued during 2020 through the Hate Crime Partnership Group including: Hate crime awareness week and work to connect with local voluntary and community groups on hate crime.

Protecting Vulnerable People Performance headlines

• 5500 Covid risk assessments undertaken for children deemed to be vulnerable.

• An initial reduction in referrals to the complex safeguarding team but increases seen since the summer.

• An increase in the number and complexity of referrals for domestic abuse incidents over the last 12 months.

• The percentage of non-opiate users successfully completing treatment is 46.7%, which is the 3rd highest in GM and compares favourably against the national figure of 35.9%.

• There was a significant increase in hate crime July-September, however, this has substantially reduced since.

Preventing Radicalisation and Extremism• GM Prevent Self-Assessment completed for Stockport, with feedback and

learning expected to be shared in May.

• With local authority responsibility for case management through “Operation Dovetail” in place and new statutory guidance being implemented, Stockport Channel Panel continues to function well.

• Numbers of Channel referrals across GM and in Stockport have fallen over the past year (linked to reduced school attendance) and are lower than previous years.

• Given young people spending more time online than they were pre-Covid, there have been increased concerns about access to extremist materials online over the past year, with schools being provided with advice and guidance to raise awareness.

• Planning and preparation underway for the Channel Panel Case Peer Review due to commence in July.

• As we build stronger relationships with our communities through our developing neighbourhoods model, keeping people connected in our communities –supporting community cohesion and reducing community tensions – will be key.

Forward Look

One Safer Stockport Plan

The SSP Plan is a key partnership plan delivering of the recently adopted One Stockport Borough Plan, aligned to the One Heart “A strong and supportive Stockport” priority.

The GM “Standing Together” Police and Crime Plan is a 3 year plan due for renewal this year -aim is to have a new strategy in place by 1st April 2022.

Anticipate work to develop a new SSP Plan with partners taking place in the second part of the year, aligning as much as possible with the GM Police and Crime Plan development, and taking forward the partnership vision of the One Stockport Borough Plan.

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